The "first world" makes the waste - and dumps it on the "third" world the concentration of production, is a general and fundamental law of the present stage of development of capitalism." (Imperial. 15m, The Highest Stare of Lenin's view of the world system of exploitation being created under this "general law" remarkably modern and appropriate over 80 years later:
"On the threshold of the twenticin ccatury we see tae formaton of a new type of monopoly: firstly monopolist capitalist combines in all capitalistically developed countries; secondly the monopo#s position ora few very rich countries, in which the accumula. tion of capital has reached gigan.
An "superabundance of capital" has "The facts show (...) that the arisen in the advanced countries.
"It goes without saying that if capitalism could develop agriculture, waica toony wisemany lake behind industry everywhere, if it could raise the standard of living of the masses, who are every.
still half-starved and poverty-stricken, in spite of the amazing technical progress, then there could be no talk of a superabundance of capital. ... "But if capitalism did these things it would not be capitalism: for both uneven development and a semi-starvation level of exisfence of tae masses are rundamental and inevitable conditions of this mode of production."
Lenin goes on to underline the significance of the "strings" blatantly attached then (and now) to loans from the imperialist countries to less developed countries:
*The most usual thing is to stipulate that part of the loan that is granted shall be spent on purin tac ercartor country particularly on orders for war materials or for ships, etc. (...) The export of capital abroad thus becomes a means for encouraging the export of commodities."
Lenin goes out of his way to stress the is not shaped by the individual moral choices of the capitalists, but by the working through of the laws of a system driven by profit and exploitation:
"The capitalists divide the world, not out of any particular malice, but because the degree of been reached forces them to adopt this method in order to obtain profits."
Unlike previous "empires" which had been built by pre-capitalist nations on the basis of military conquest and subjugation, tinue to control day to day life even in politically independent "Finance capital is such a great, it may be said such a decisive force in all economic and in all international relations that it is capable of subjecting, and actually does subject to itself even states enjoying the fullest political independence [...)"
He returns to this theme, pointing out that:
"Typical of this epoch is not only the two main groups of and colonies, but also the diverse forms of dependent countries which, officially, are politically independent, but fact are and diplomatic dependence."
Lenin derides those libcrals of the time (and would gually deride today's liberals) who complained that monopolies could improve their own access to raw materials by improving the conditions of the masses:
"Where," asks Lenin, " except in the imagination of sentimental rerormisis, are were any trusts capable of interesting themselves in the condition of the masses instead of the of colonies? ( "Finance capital is interested not only in the already discovered sources of raw materials, but also in potential sources, because present-day technical development is extremely rapid, and land which is useless today may be made fertile tomorrow if new methods are employed and if large amounts of